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ST. JOHN'S, NFLD., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1967
NO. 16
Voting reform coming
The Prize-winning Rothermere-Bowater Float
President Doug Cook of the CSU
has announced extensive reforms in
the present electoral system. At the
meeting held February 12, he stated
that if Council approved, Memorial
would switch from general representation to representation by Faculty. Mr.
Cook stated that this would be the
biggest piece of legislation Council
will have tackled this year. "The new
system will ensure a fair method of
representation ... for forthcoming
years. It is a definite improvement
over electing twenty members at large."
The new system will be a form of
compromise between the old general
system and the all-faculty system.
There will be elections for eighteen
members in the spring. Eleven of these
will come from various faculty groups
in the following proportions
4 from Education
1 from Physical Education
1 from Arts (including Social
Welfare)
1 from Pure Science
1 from Commerce
2 Councillors resign
1 from Pre-Med. and Pre-Dent.
1 from the Graduate Society
1 from Applied Science (including
Engineering and Forestry)
The student body will elect seven
members who will represent them in
general, and who will form the nucleus of the Council Executive. From
this group the entire Council will
elect a President. The President will
appoint a Vice-President subject to
ratification. The position of Finance
Chairman will be open to all members.
Four positions fall outside this basic
framework. In the Fall, Freshmen will
elect two of the number to represent
them. The Editor-in-Chief of the
MUSE and a representative of the
Inter-Residence Committee will sit as
ex-officio members.
The CSU Constitution requires that
Constitutional changes must be given
two weeks notice. This means that
even if they are approved, the new
voting changes cannot come into effect until March 1.
Model Parliament
Council Chairman John Frecker and
Councillor Maureen Wodorow tendered resignations to the CS.U. on Sunday, February 12.
Mr. Frecker read a prepared statement to the bare quorum in which
he said that the Council of the Student's Union had fallen victim to the
irrelevancy which plagued the Canadian Union of Students. This same
irrelevancy caused Memorial to withdraw from that body last fall.
"The Council" has deluded itself
into thinking it is a body of action,"
stated Frecker. Continuing in the
same vein he said that Council lacks
direction and a unifying force. It
has no long range goals. There are
no really useful committees of Council. He lamented the fact that the
I.D. Card and the poster questions
received much unneeded Council attention. Yet there was no interest
given to policy making as it affects
Council relations with the Provincial
Government and the University Administration.
President Doug Cook replied, "Council is for pragmatists rather than
Pseudo-intellectuals." Other councillors agreed with Frecker in part only.
They felt the Executive should have
more power. Goals must be set at
Executive meetings.
Frecker concluded the issue with
the declaration that he had resigned
as the strongest statement he could
make and if more responsible people
did not run in the next election he
himself would refuse to run.
Maureen Woodrow, who was elected
for the first time last March, resigned
because of Council's uncoordinated inefficiency. Miss Woodrow will not run
in the upcoming election as she is
graduating.
CUS loses McGill
MONTREAL (CUP)—The Canadian Union of Students Wednesday
(February 8) bade good-bye to its last
Quebec Stronghold, after McGill University students voted 58 per cent to join
l'Union Generate des Etudiants du
Quebec.
In the two-part referendum, McGill
voted 3,168 to 924 in favouru of joining a national union, then dumped
its CUS ties 2,063 to 1,489.
The McGill withdrawal, eighth from
CUS in the past five months, was no
surprise to CUS president Doug Ward,
who called the move a "priority political decision".
Commented Ward: "If I had been
a student on the McGill campus, I
would have voted the same way.
"I was delighted that the McGill
students voted so strongly to join a
union knowing full well that both
unions are getting involved in society
around them and in their university
communities.
Ward's enthusiasm wasn't shared by
McGill council president Jim McCoubrey, who said while results indicated McGill students wanted to
leave CUS to join UGEQ, the vote was
"extremely close".
Commented McCoubrey: "I think
we can do a lot within UGEQ to
stress the rights of the English minority, and these rights must be respected
by UGEQ."
"Every effort possible will be made
by the English universities and colleges to make the union bilingual as
soon as possible," he warned.
"If our demands can make French-
Canadian nationalism rear its ugly
head and not get bilingualism, we
still will have accomplished something."
Then he added: "I have strong reservations about almost all the UGEQ's
policies."
Initial reaction from UGEQ over
McGill's decision came quickly Wednesday night, and as expected, was
favourable .
Said UGEQ president Robert Nelson:
"Naturally we are very pleased that
McGill has finally decided to join
UGEQ. Its membership will no doubt
prove to be beneficial to both the
university and to the aims of UGEQ."
Doug Ward has supported this latest withdrawal from CUS during the
campaign preceding Wednesday's vote,
but was quoted as saying McGill could
choose one of the two and still "not
do a bloody thing in either one of
them".
(See Page 9)
Editor's Note: We regret that every
session of Model Parliament was not
covered in its entirety, but we were
simply too understaffed to cover completely an event of this magnitude.
FRIDAY AFTERNOON:
At 2:10 p.m. the Speaker called the
House to order.
The first bill presented was one
dealing with the preservation of Newfoundland character, delivered by the
prime minister, Rex Murphy. Debate
continued on this bill with a defeated
motion put forth by the opposition
to stop it in second reading. The
House was then adjourned for a half-
hour recess at 3:15.
At 3:45, a bill on Labrador affairs
was introduced by the member from
Gull Bay. Debate continued with
the usual moderately harsh comments
from both sides of the House, with
an interruption by prime minister
Murphy to announce the arrival of
Mr. G. Ottenheimer, leader of the
Opposition in the Newfoundland
House of Assembly. Second reading on
this bill was deferred.
The next item on the agenda for
the afternoon was the reading of a
bill respecting the establishment of
a member of junior colleges in the
province, thus providing a stepping
stone between grade eleven and first
year university. This bill was introduced by the member from Bac Bay.
The member of the government from
Moose Head delivered an address presenting several justifiable arguments
in favour of the establishment of such
schools at St. John's, Gander, Stephenville and, as suggested by the opposition, Labrador City.
At 4:50 the member from Meat
Head proposed adjournment until 7:00
that evening.
FRIDAY NIGHT:
The third Session of Model Parliament which convened at 7:00 p.m.
on Friday, February 10, consisted largely of a debate on the bill calling for
the Restoration of the Newfoundland
Character and the resolution: "Politics—the Art of Scoundrels?" Opening
the House, Speaker George Baker commented hopefully that the fracas and
general disorderliness of members
which had marked previous sessions
should be absent at this one.
MODEL PARLIAMENT
(Continued on page 9)
THRONE SPEECH—(Page 2)
We need reporters
I K & 0,
Pre-Med's first-place Snow Sculpture

ST. JOHN'S, NFLD., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1967
NO. 16
Voting reform coming
The Prize-winning Rothermere-Bowater Float
President Doug Cook of the CSU
has announced extensive reforms in
the present electoral system. At the
meeting held February 12, he stated
that if Council approved, Memorial
would switch from general representation to representation by Faculty. Mr.
Cook stated that this would be the
biggest piece of legislation Council
will have tackled this year. "The new
system will ensure a fair method of
representation ... for forthcoming
years. It is a definite improvement
over electing twenty members at large."
The new system will be a form of
compromise between the old general
system and the all-faculty system.
There will be elections for eighteen
members in the spring. Eleven of these
will come from various faculty groups
in the following proportions
4 from Education
1 from Physical Education
1 from Arts (including Social
Welfare)
1 from Pure Science
1 from Commerce
2 Councillors resign
1 from Pre-Med. and Pre-Dent.
1 from the Graduate Society
1 from Applied Science (including
Engineering and Forestry)
The student body will elect seven
members who will represent them in
general, and who will form the nucleus of the Council Executive. From
this group the entire Council will
elect a President. The President will
appoint a Vice-President subject to
ratification. The position of Finance
Chairman will be open to all members.
Four positions fall outside this basic
framework. In the Fall, Freshmen will
elect two of the number to represent
them. The Editor-in-Chief of the
MUSE and a representative of the
Inter-Residence Committee will sit as
ex-officio members.
The CSU Constitution requires that
Constitutional changes must be given
two weeks notice. This means that
even if they are approved, the new
voting changes cannot come into effect until March 1.
Model Parliament
Council Chairman John Frecker and
Councillor Maureen Wodorow tendered resignations to the CS.U. on Sunday, February 12.
Mr. Frecker read a prepared statement to the bare quorum in which
he said that the Council of the Student's Union had fallen victim to the
irrelevancy which plagued the Canadian Union of Students. This same
irrelevancy caused Memorial to withdraw from that body last fall.
"The Council" has deluded itself
into thinking it is a body of action,"
stated Frecker. Continuing in the
same vein he said that Council lacks
direction and a unifying force. It
has no long range goals. There are
no really useful committees of Council. He lamented the fact that the
I.D. Card and the poster questions
received much unneeded Council attention. Yet there was no interest
given to policy making as it affects
Council relations with the Provincial
Government and the University Administration.
President Doug Cook replied, "Council is for pragmatists rather than
Pseudo-intellectuals." Other councillors agreed with Frecker in part only.
They felt the Executive should have
more power. Goals must be set at
Executive meetings.
Frecker concluded the issue with
the declaration that he had resigned
as the strongest statement he could
make and if more responsible people
did not run in the next election he
himself would refuse to run.
Maureen Woodrow, who was elected
for the first time last March, resigned
because of Council's uncoordinated inefficiency. Miss Woodrow will not run
in the upcoming election as she is
graduating.
CUS loses McGill
MONTREAL (CUP)—The Canadian Union of Students Wednesday
(February 8) bade good-bye to its last
Quebec Stronghold, after McGill University students voted 58 per cent to join
l'Union Generate des Etudiants du
Quebec.
In the two-part referendum, McGill
voted 3,168 to 924 in favouru of joining a national union, then dumped
its CUS ties 2,063 to 1,489.
The McGill withdrawal, eighth from
CUS in the past five months, was no
surprise to CUS president Doug Ward,
who called the move a "priority political decision".
Commented Ward: "If I had been
a student on the McGill campus, I
would have voted the same way.
"I was delighted that the McGill
students voted so strongly to join a
union knowing full well that both
unions are getting involved in society
around them and in their university
communities.
Ward's enthusiasm wasn't shared by
McGill council president Jim McCoubrey, who said while results indicated McGill students wanted to
leave CUS to join UGEQ, the vote was
"extremely close".
Commented McCoubrey: "I think
we can do a lot within UGEQ to
stress the rights of the English minority, and these rights must be respected
by UGEQ."
"Every effort possible will be made
by the English universities and colleges to make the union bilingual as
soon as possible," he warned.
"If our demands can make French-
Canadian nationalism rear its ugly
head and not get bilingualism, we
still will have accomplished something."
Then he added: "I have strong reservations about almost all the UGEQ's
policies."
Initial reaction from UGEQ over
McGill's decision came quickly Wednesday night, and as expected, was
favourable .
Said UGEQ president Robert Nelson:
"Naturally we are very pleased that
McGill has finally decided to join
UGEQ. Its membership will no doubt
prove to be beneficial to both the
university and to the aims of UGEQ."
Doug Ward has supported this latest withdrawal from CUS during the
campaign preceding Wednesday's vote,
but was quoted as saying McGill could
choose one of the two and still "not
do a bloody thing in either one of
them".
(See Page 9)
Editor's Note: We regret that every
session of Model Parliament was not
covered in its entirety, but we were
simply too understaffed to cover completely an event of this magnitude.
FRIDAY AFTERNOON:
At 2:10 p.m. the Speaker called the
House to order.
The first bill presented was one
dealing with the preservation of Newfoundland character, delivered by the
prime minister, Rex Murphy. Debate
continued on this bill with a defeated
motion put forth by the opposition
to stop it in second reading. The
House was then adjourned for a half-
hour recess at 3:15.
At 3:45, a bill on Labrador affairs
was introduced by the member from
Gull Bay. Debate continued with
the usual moderately harsh comments
from both sides of the House, with
an interruption by prime minister
Murphy to announce the arrival of
Mr. G. Ottenheimer, leader of the
Opposition in the Newfoundland
House of Assembly. Second reading on
this bill was deferred.
The next item on the agenda for
the afternoon was the reading of a
bill respecting the establishment of
a member of junior colleges in the
province, thus providing a stepping
stone between grade eleven and first
year university. This bill was introduced by the member from Bac Bay.
The member of the government from
Moose Head delivered an address presenting several justifiable arguments
in favour of the establishment of such
schools at St. John's, Gander, Stephenville and, as suggested by the opposition, Labrador City.
At 4:50 the member from Meat
Head proposed adjournment until 7:00
that evening.
FRIDAY NIGHT:
The third Session of Model Parliament which convened at 7:00 p.m.
on Friday, February 10, consisted largely of a debate on the bill calling for
the Restoration of the Newfoundland
Character and the resolution: "Politics—the Art of Scoundrels?" Opening
the House, Speaker George Baker commented hopefully that the fracas and
general disorderliness of members
which had marked previous sessions
should be absent at this one.
MODEL PARLIAMENT
(Continued on page 9)
THRONE SPEECH—(Page 2)
We need reporters
I K & 0,
Pre-Med's first-place Snow Sculpture